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Another correction from the Mail group on energy bills

14 Nov 2011, 13:07

Christian Hunt

When Daily Mail Editor Paul Dacre defended the PCC in front of
the Leveson inquiry a few weeks ago,
questions were raised in the Guardian by Bob Ward of the
Grantham institute about whether he thought the PCC's rules should
apply to the Mail's coverage of climate and energy issues.

It's a fair point. Back in September, the Daily Mail printed a correction to
their claim - covered in a front-page
headline and numerous supporting articles - that 'green stealth
taxes' are currently adding £200 to consumer energy bills after we
made a press complaints commission complaint about the use of the
figure. Despite the complaint and correction, no supporting
evidence has been produced for the number, which was sourced to the
climate skeptic think-tank the Global Warming Policy
Foundation.

As the Mail correction recognised:

"...According to Ofgem, the correct
figure for environmental costs is currently no more than 9% [of an
average fuel bill]. We are happy to clarify this"

"Utility price rises have pushed the
average household energy bill to almost £1,300 a year, partly
driven - as critics pointed out yesterday - by 'green' taxes
imposed by Mr Huhne's department.

The stealth levies, introduced to fund
Britain's investment in wind and solar power, are costing families
an average of £200 a year - two-thirds of the amount the Cabinet
Minister said they should be able to save. This represents an
increase of between 15 and 20 per cent on the average domestic
power bill."

The Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail are separate papers - so
this reuse of the figure after correction was likely to have been a
mistake.

We submitted another PCC complaint requesting a correction in
the paper, and were less than encouraged when the Mail on Sunday
used the same figure yet again - this time in
another editorial criticising green energy measures, which
ironically berated 'scientists' for not being prepared to admit
mistakes:

"A great deal of government policy is
based on the certainty that global warming is the biggest threat to
our future thanks to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere.

"That is why the country is overrun with
wind farms and energy costs are skyrocketing, with green stealth
taxes adding 15 to 20 per cent to the average domestic power
bill. And this is all done on the authority of
scientists who, we are repeatedly told, must have got the
arguments right.

"...They are - many would say arrogantly
- sure they are right and stubbornly parrot the scientists as they
make the case for being the 'greenest government ever'. But what if
they are wrong?"

Well, the Mail on Sunday yesterday
corrected these pieces in their new (presumably) Leveson-facing
corrections column, recognising - again - that the GWPF's figure
was wrong.

"On September 18 and on October 29 we
said the Government's 'green stealth taxes' are costing families an
average of £200 a year - an increase of 15 - 20 per cent on typical
domestic power bills. In fact Ofgem estimates that environmental
costs account for 7 per cent, or £100, of the average domestic
power bill."

Ofgem's estimated figure has changed from 9 percent to 7 percent
to reflect the release of
updated figures from the regulator showing that the proportion
of energy bills attributable to green policies has fallen relative
to rising bills, which are being inflated by
high gas prices.

We have another PCC complaint in process following a claim
subsequently made by the Mail (
twice) that green measures are currently adding £300 to energy
bills, a misreading or misrepresentation of a Telegraph story.